Robert
E. Richardson, Assistant United States Attorney, and Carmen
M. Ortiz, United States Attorney, on brief for appellee.

Before
Howard, Chief Judge, Torruella and Lynch, Circuit Judges.

TORRUELLA, Circuit Judge.

A jury
convicted Steven Nolte of making false statements in a
passport application, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1542
(Count I), aggravated identity theft, in violation of 18
U.S.C. § 1028A (Count II), and use of a falsely-obtained
Social Security account number to obtain benefits, in
violation of 42 U.S.C. § 408(a)(7)(A) (Count III). At
sentencing, the district court enhanced by four levels the
Sentencing Guidelines range for Nolte's conviction for
Count I pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2L2.2(b)(3)(A) and
ultimately sentenced him to twelve months for Counts I and
III, [1] and to the mandatory consecutive
twenty-four months imprisonment term for his conviction for
Count II, resulting in an aggregated sentence of thirty-six
months of imprisonment. Nolte challenges the application of
the four-level enhancement as to Count I, as well as his
conviction for aggravated identity theft. Because we find
that the four-level enhancement was correctly applied, and
Nolte's argument challenging his conviction for
aggravated identity theft is foreclosed by binding circuit
precedent, we affirm.

I.
Background

A.
Factual Background

Nolte
was born in 1963 in Arizona, and lived there through
approximately 1997. He worked in real estate in Arizona
during the early 1990s, where he befriended Steve France.
Steve France had, in addition to other siblings, a brother
named George who passed away in 1966, at the age of four
days.

After
his time working in real estate, Nolte set up a business for
computer consulting named Etlon Communications. Nolte,
through Etlon Communications, worked as an information
technology consultant to a company named Fulton Homes in the
mid-1990s. In 1997, approximately $571, 000 was drawn from
Fulton Homes' bank account through five checks addressed
to Etlon Communications. These checks featured Fulton
Homes' president's forged signature. Most of these
funds were transferred to a bank located in Costa Rica, to
the receipt of Nolte.

On May
13, 1997, Nolte obtained an Arizona driver's license
using the name of George France and a birth date in 1966.
Nolte maintained this identity for nearly two decades. On May
15, 1997, Nolte used that license to apply for a United
States Passport, under the name George France. In that
application, he stated that he was born in 1966 in Phoenix,
Arizona, and he provided a Social Security number ending in
7622. This Social Security number actually belonged to a
different person, who was from Arizona. The United States
issued the passport on May 16, 1997. The issuance of this
passport was expedited, due to travel plans to San
José, Costa Rica.

Shortly
afterwards, on May 30, 1997, Nolte -- under the identity of
George France -- applied for a replacement passport at the
United States embassy in Costa Rica, stating that his
passport had been stolen. In the application, he provided a
Social Security number that differed by one number -- but
that also ended in 7622 -- which actually belonged to a
different person, who was from Hawaii. The application also
listed 1966 as his year of birth, and was obtained by using
the George France Arizona license and by referencing the
other, recently-obtained George France passport.

On June
9, 1999, Nolte -- as George France -- submitted an
application for a Social Security number, indicating that he
had never received one. He listed his birth year as 1966, and
identified himself using the May 30, 1997 passport and a
birth certificate he had acquired for George France, which
had been issued on May 13, 1997. He was subsequently issued a
Social Security number for George France, which ended in
8253. On April 19, 2007, Nolte filed for a renewal of the May
30, 1997 George France passport. In the renewal application,
he provided the Social Security number for George France
ending in 8253. The renewed passport issued on April 30,
2007.

On May
11, 2012, Nolte went to the office of the Boston Passport
Agency seeking a replacement passport. He claimed that he had
accidentally put his April 30, 2007 passport through the
washer and dryer, which had damaged it. He completed an
application for a replacement in which he again listed his
name as George France and provided personal information for
George France, including the Social Security number ending in
8253. He provided the Arizona driver's license, the birth
certificate, and the damaged 2007 passport as proof of his
identity.

The
application was approved by the first passport specialist,
who dealt with Nolte in person, but required further vetting
before the passport was actually issued. During that process,
the application was flagged and sent to a fraud prevention
manager because the Social Security number used -- the one
ending in 8253, issued in 1999 -- had been assigned when the
applicant was thirty-three years old, which is an unusually
late age for receiving a Social Security number. The fraud
prevention manager called Nolte (as George France) and
inquired why his Social Security number had been issued so
late in his life; he responded that his mother had given her
sons the same Social Security number, that he had mistakenly
used his brother's Social Security number earlier in
life, and that he had applied for a new number after learning
of the issue.

Shortly
thereafter, special agents in the Department of State began
an investigation into the application. During that
investigation, on May 22, 2012, Nolte returned to the Boston
Passport Agency to inquire about the status of the
replacement passport. While there, two agents advised him of
his rights and conducted an interview. As he had listed in
the passport application, he told the agents that his name
was George France; he was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1966;
both of his parents had passed away; his Social Security
number was the one ending in 8253; and other personal details
relating to the France family. He provided the agents with
the same explanation about his use of varying Social Security
numbers that he had given to the fraud prevention specialist
-- that he and his brothers had been issued the same Social
Security numbers, and that he had used that number until he
learned of the mistake after his brother Steve died in 1997.
Much of this information was incorrect, however; for example,
as testified at trial, the actual George France had two
sisters, and his mother, Anna France, was indeed alive.

B.
Procedural Background

On
August 20, 2013, a federal grand jury indicted Nolte on
Counts I, II, and III. He was arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada
on September 3, 2013, and the case went to trial on March 2,
2015. The evidence presented at trial included fingerprint
matches, DNA evidence, and the testimony of two witnesses who
knew Nolte from Arizona to show that the defendant was in
fact Steven Nolte. On March 6, 2015, the jury returned a
guilty verdict on all three counts.

The
Presentence Investigation Report ("PSR") calculated
Nolte's total offense level as 12; this included a
four-level enhancement because of the fraudulent use of a
United States passport pursuant to U.S.S.G. §
2L2.2(b)(3). Nolte objected to this enhancement, claiming
that he did not "use" a passport since the 2007
passport was damaged, and that Application Note 2 to U.S.S.G.
§ 2B1.6 precluded applying an enhancement to Count I for
using a means of identification because he was also charged
with a count of aggravated identity theft related to that
...

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